NEW YORK — As an Army general faces sexual misconduct charges involving female officers, his wife is seeking to stir a broader conversation about adultery, the strain of separation and the stress of war.

Rebecca Sinclair is speaking out in defense of her husband, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair. She's also discussing what she sees as the toll of a decade of war on military couples.

She told The Associated Press Monday she's not excusing her husband's infidelity or saying that war causes infidelity. She says she's trying to spotlight "the bigger issue."

At a recent military hearing in Fort Bragg, N.C., women officers described an affair, forced sexual encounters and a series of explicit email exchanges with the general. His defense suggested he was guilty only of adultery and fraternization, punishable by a written reprimand.